Editorial: A much-anticipated groundbreaking

Last week, Garner dignitaries of all stripes turned out to watch the symbolic beginning of work on construction of a new town hall.

In about a year, many of Garner’s town employees will move into new quarters as the new facility opens its doors. For many taxpayers a new town hall may seem like an extravagance. But that’s not the case in Garner where the former town hall had been cut up and diced up into so many small spaces that it was difficult to work efficiently.

The new facility will be constructed with today’s technology in mind and it will allow the people who work for us to do their jobs more effectively. That’s important to a town staff that tries to do its work without asking any more of taxpayers than they must.

And, here’s another important factor to keep in mind. As Garner continues to recruit new businesses aggressively, it’s important that the town hall – effectively the front door for many of those kinds of decision-makers – look like a place they want to go to do business. No, it doesn’t have to be glittering in gold, but it does need to look professional and inviting to the point that business leaders won’t be turned off when they walk through the door.

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As Town Manager Rodney Dickerson pointed out at last week’s groundbreaking, a lot of important decisions will be made inside that building over the next 30 or 40 years.

It would be good for all of Garner if the decision-makers are at ease when they are doing so.

And we trust that project managers overseeing the work will do their best to keep the project on schedule and within budget.

We will all watch the site, next door to the prior town hall, with much anticipation as footings are poured, walls go up, windows go in and the other parts of the building – Garner’s building – takes shape.

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